Bruno Walpoth makes brutally beautiful life size figures out of wood, manipulating the hard, intractable material until it releases stunningly vulnerable human forms inside. The level of emotion exuding from these characters is heartbreaking, and we are happy to see that the sculptural skill and artistry of the Renaissance period is not dead yet.

Italian artist Bruno Walpoth, who carved these incredibly lifelike wooden sculptures, comes from a long lineage of woodcarvers. Drawing from his ancestry along with contemporary ideas inspired from other forms of art, Walpoth transforms his blocks of wood into detailed sculptures of the human body.